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Chris Thile

Thanks for Listening began as a simple idea: To document, in a studio setting, the tunes that singer, songwriter, and mandolinist Chris Thile had composed for the new “Song of the Week” segment of public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion during his inaugural season as host. Thile had set himself a formidable musical challenge and, as befits this enthusiastically risk-embracing artist, he was more than up to the task. In addition to traveling, planning, rehearsing, and performing on the fifteen episodes of APHC’s 2016–17 season, Thile managed each week to create a funny, topical, and at times quite poignant new song he would play with a rotating cast of APHC band-mates and guest stars. These were not throwaway radio bits, but smart, fully realized compositions. They served the needs of the show but were just as timely and engaging on their own.

In July 2017, Thile went into New York City’s Reservoir Studios with producer and longtime friend Thomas Bartlett and that’s when these songs gained an even deeper resonance. As they listened through the APHC versions, Thile and Bartlett realized that, taken together, these songs could form an album-length narrative. Part of the story Thile found was autobiographical. Thanks for Listening represents perhaps the most direct and personal material Thile has ever recorded. It reflects the changes to his own peripatetic life as he assumes a new role as APHC host and, behind the scenes, as a new dad—while continuing to play with his band Punch Brothers and collaborate with such artists as Brad Mehldau, Edgar Meyer, and Yo-Yo Ma. We learn what delights him (like the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series,) and what alarms him (the polarized state of our nation post-election). But Thile also tells a broader tale—satirically, wistfully, frankly— about the divisions and disconnects plaguing America today, whether it’s on social media or at the Thanksgiving table. The overarching theme, Thile realized, was about the art of listening—the joys of it, the current difficulties of it, and the necessity of hearing what others have to say, not just the overwhelming desire to be heard.

Listening, or the lack thereof, figures prominently on several tracks: “Feedback Loop” lampoons the way social media filters out all but those one agrees with, while “Modern Friendship” rues the way old pals can drift apart—and suggests that maybe sharing a well-made night cap could help solve that. “Stanley Ann” is a graceful imagining of what Barack Obama might have said to his late mom as he departed the White House in January. The deceptively cheerful “Falsetto,” on the other hand, is an all-too-kind speculation on how the current occupant of the White House might gracelessly scold an activist entertainer—managing to insult the singer’s “girly falsetto” in the process.

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6
Album Review

Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau: Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau

Read "Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau" reviewed by Geno Thackara


If you blinked at the wrong time, it was easy to miss the fact that Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau had played together at all. For two such restless collaborators, each occasional encounter was one more fleeting meet-up among many others--a quick one-off in 2011, a nine-city string of duo shows in 2013 and another two-night live stand after a couple years more. That last was accompanied by a quick stop in the studio to finally give the rest of ...

7
Album Review

Chris Thile: Chris Thile: Bach - Sonatas & Partitas

Read "Chris Thile: Bach - Sonatas & Partitas" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


At first blush, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin played on the humble mandolin might be akin to making a Rusty Nail with single-malt scotch. A successful performance will require, at the very least, great virtuosity and vision: both of which Chris Thile possesses in impressive amounts. Banjoist Bela Fleck's superb 2001 recording Perpetual Motion (Sony) demonstrated that in the hands of a superior musician, Baroque fare shines like a new dime (Fleck even covers Bach's “Prelude" from Partita ...

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Recording

Mandolinist/Singer Chris Thile and Pianist Brad Mehldau Release Duo Album on Nonesuch, Today!

Mandolinist/Singer Chris Thile and Pianist Brad Mehldau Release Duo Album on Nonesuch, Today!

Source: Nonesuch Publicity

Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau features original material and interpretations from a wide range of songwriters Nonesuch Records labelmates mandolinist/singer Chris Thile and pianist Brad Mehldau, longtime admirers of each other's work, first toured as a duo in 2013. At the end of 2015, they played a two-night stand at New York City's Bowery Ballroom before going into the studio to record Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau, a mix of covers and original songs that Nonesuch releases on January 27, ...

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Event

Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau Play National Concert Hall, Dublin, November 9

Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau Play National Concert Hall, Dublin, November 9

Source: All About Jazz

The National Concert Hall plays host to one of the most thrilling American musicians of his generation, Chris Thile of Punch Brothers in a new duo with the acclaimed pianist Brad Mehldau. Both artists are inspired by a wide range of composers and songwriters, from Bach to Radiohead. Now these kindred spirits combine their dazzling imaginations in an evening of classical transcriptions, pop covers, and original songs. One of the most lyrical and intimate voices of contemporary jazz piano, Brad ...

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Performance / Tour

Mandolinist Extraordinaire Chris Thile

Mandolinist Extraordinaire Chris Thile

Source: Michael Ricci

Mandolinist extraordinaire Chris Thile is only 28, but already he has shocked or changed the world in which he operates several times.

First, there was his breakout work with the acoustic trio Nickel Creek. More recently with the Punch Brothers, he wrote a large-scale song cycle for bluegrass band called The Blind Leaving the Blind (Nonesuch). As historical analogies to Thile, I would nominate Duke Ellington or Astor Piazzolla, who also tried to extend their once-humble idioms (jazz and tango, ...

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Music Industry

Nonesuch Records Signs Singer/Composer/Mandolinist Chris Thile and His New Band, Punch Brothers

Nonesuch Records Signs Singer/Composer/Mandolinist Chris Thile and His New Band, Punch Brothers

Source: All About Jazz

Band's label debut will be released February 26

Thile's album with Edgar Meyer follows later in 2008 Nonesuch Records has signed mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile as well as his new band, Punch Brothers: Chris Eldridge (guitar), Greg Garrison (bass), Noam Pikelny (banjo), and Gabe Witcher (fiddle). The band's label debut will be released on February 26, 2008. Thile is perhaps best known as a member of the Grammy Award-winning trio Nickel Creek, with whom he had played since childhood. He ...

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Recording

Mike Marshall and Chris Thile, "Live Duets" Available January 24, 2006!

Mike Marshall and Chris Thile, "Live Duets"  Available January 24, 2006!

Source: All About Jazz

"The two best mandolinists in the world and right up there among musicians of any persuasion." --THE TENNESSEAN

LIVE DUETS is a full-scale event! A must-hear for lovers of top-notch musicianship and creativity ... and a chance for all to experience two masters stretching out!

Mandolin masters Mike Marshall and Chris Thile supported their historic collaboration on 2003's INTO THE CAULDRON with a small run of must-see tour dates. At those precious handful of shows, two of the most talented ...

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Jacob’s Ladder

Nonesuch Records
2022

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Chris Thile & Brad...

Nonesuch Records
2017

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Chris Thile: Bach -...

Nonesuch Records
2013

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Videos

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